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Director of Curry House Disqualified For Failure To Deliver

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 02 December 2011

A restaurateur in Lancaster has been disqualified from acting as a company director, managing or in any way controlling a company for seven years following an investigation by The Insolvency Service’s Company Investigations team in Manchester.

Mr Mustaq Yakub Mister (40), of St Leonardsgate Lancaster, was the sole director of Anzum Limited, an Indian restaurant in Bolton, at the date of liquidation. The company entered Creditors Voluntary Liquidation on 18 December 2009. Following the liquidation, Mr Mister was asked to provide the accounting records kept by the company, but failed to do so. In March 2011, Mr Mister stated that the accounting records had been destroyed in a flood in October 2010, months after his liquidator had requested them.

The investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Mr Mister had failed to maintain, preserve or deliver adequate accounting records for the company. As a result it was not possible to:

· Account for the income and expenditure of the company including cash takings, cash withdrawals, purchases, staff wages and monies paid into and withdrawn from the director’s loan account,,

· Reconcile the recorded assets totalling £39,715 from the last accounts at 31 December 2006, to the fixed assets realised in the liquidation in the amount of £4,851,or

· Verify the extent to which the company owed money to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) at liquidation in unpaid PAYE/NIC and VAT liabilities.

Mr Mister did not dispute he failed to ensure that the company complied with its statutory obligations to file VAT returns to HMRC and to make VAT and PAYE payments, leaving at least £25,839 owing at the date of liquidation.

Commenting on the case, Claire Entwistle, Director of Company Investigations North, said: -

“The Insolvency Service wants to make it clear that we will deal robustly with failure to adhere to the basic requirements of business practice by keeping full records and properly complying with taxation liabilities. .The protection provided by limited liability depends on company directors meeting their duties and obligations and if they fail to do so this protection will be withdrawn.”

Ends

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Notes to Editors

1. Anzum Limited was incorporated on 4 September 2003 and operated as an Indian Restaurant under the trading name of Sizzling Palate in the Bolton area.

2. On 14 November 2011 Mr Mustaq Mister signed a Director Disqualification Undertaking banning him from being a director of a company for a period of seven years. The undertaking was accepted by the Secretary of State on 23 November 2011 and the period of disqualification will commence on 14 December 2011.

3. Disqualification undertakings were introduced in April 2001. They are an administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Without specific permission of a court, a person with a Company Director Disqualification, including undertakings, cannot:-

§ act as a director of a company,

§ take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company,

§ be a liquidator or administrator of a company; or

§ be a receiver or manager of a company’s property.

4. Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions can be found at http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/directordisqualificationandrestrictions/whatisdisqualification.htm

5. The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. The Service also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds, and advises ministers and other Government departments on insolvency law and practice. Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service is available from http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency

6. Media enquiries should be directed to: -

Ade Daramy, Press Officer, 020 7596 6187

Contacts:

Ade Daramy
Phone: 020 7596 6187
ade.daramy@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk